Hi all,
I've got the XA, XA2 and XA3. Here's my particular experience with them:
-Size and weight: they are nice, quite pocketable cameras. I *always* carry
one of these with me. Much heavier than the Stylus Epic/mju-2, but they
also seem very rugged.
-Shutter release: I find the button very well located, and its extreme
sensitivity helps to make handheld shots with slow shutter speeds (see
<http://www.supercable.es/~santis/etc/handheld.jpeg> and a crop at
<http://www.supercable.es/~santis/etc/detail.jpeg>, taken with an XA,
handheld, most likely 1/4 sec. at f/4, IIRC). Sometimes the button is
misaligned, so you must press on the "right" corner to release the shutter.
-Exposure compensation (not in the XA2): +1.5 stops is the right amount in
most cases -- I sometimes shoot slides with these little things. And
there's always the film speed setting...
-Flash: obviously, the smarter way to use the flash (on the XA series) is
*not* to use it: quite slow and clumsy. The exposure times up to 10 sec. on
the XA, and 2 sec. on the XA2/3 says it all -- for party photos, better
take a Stylus Epic ;-)
-XA specifics: for creative shots, it's nice to have a rangefinder camera
that small, as it is the aperture-priority combined with the shutter speed
indication in viewfinder, though a little slow for grab shots. About the
lens, I totally agree with a comment I read on an Italian web page (don't
recall the URL): it's a *superb* 35mm f/4... with an *emergency* f/2.8
setting -- kinda softish wide open, but quite sharp otherwise. There's also
noticeble drop in quality and illumination at the very corners of the
picture, but most times it's not important.
-XA2 specifics: a great snapshot camera. The zone focusing is not that bad
-- you can even set the lever in intermediate positions with reasonable
accuracy. And this lever returning to the middle position when the
clamshell is closed (à la focus-free ;-) is a clever idea. The lens is
great -- I think it's of Tessar design, and be they named Carl Zeiss
Tessar, Schneider Xenar, Industar or D.Zuiko, I like the Tessar flavour *a
lot*. However, there's noticeable picushion distortion on the XA2.
Theoretically, the fastest exposure is 1/750 at f/14, which would suffice
for ASA 400 slides in 'sunny-16' condition, but I've found somewhat
overexposed pics on this situation. Also tends to overexpose slides on
"spotlighted" subjects.
-XA3 specifics: quite similar to the XA2. I like the ASA 1600 top speed --
this camera with Tri-X pushed to 1600 allows almost everything ;-) I
usually fool the DX contacts by taping the DX area on the film, but then
ASA setting is full stops only. Same lens, but when shooting slides I can
see a purplish cast on pics taken with the XA3, not seen on XA2 or whatever
-- very odd.
Hope this helps,
...
Carlos J. Santisteban
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